You are Invited to Celebrate RESURRECTION SUNDAY at Christ Community Church!

Sunday’s coming, and I’m excited!

But about 1,993 years ago today, the outlook seemed bleak.

For those living through the original Holy Week in the time depicted in the gospels, Saturday morning must have been a sad and scary time. They had lived through Jesus’s arrest – they had seen Him taken away, beaten, mocked, scourged (Matthew 26:47-68, 27:26-31). I can’t imagine how terrible the cries of “Crucify Him!” and “Behold your king!” had been (Luke 23:21, John 19:14-15).

Then, all of the times that Jesus had prophesied His death had come true (Mark 8:31, 9:31, 10:33-34). He had walked out of Pilate’s compound carrying His cross (John 19:16-17), a crown of thorns ripping into His scalp and forehead (John 19:2-3), bloody and bowed while struggling under the weight. Imagine seeing Him walk the road to the place of the Skull (Luke 23:26, 33), laying the cross down and being laid down on it.

Could they watch as His arms were stretched wide and the nails were hammered into His hands and feet? Could they look upon Him as He was pierced for our transgressions (Isaiah 53:5) – as the cross was lifted and plunked in a hole as it was stood up?

He had told them all of this time and again. Didn’t He tell them of His conversation with Nicodemus when He said that He would be lifted up so that all who look upon Him may believe in Him and have eternal life (John 3:14-15)? Oh, how that prophesy must’ve seemed thin at that moment as His life drew to an end.

But Sunday was coming….

The spectators of His crucifixion would have heard Him cry out, “It is finished” (John 19:30). It must have sure seemed so to see His body taken down, carried to the cemetery, and laid in Joseph of Arimathea’s tomb (Matthew 27:57-60). Think of the finality of the heavy stone rolled by multiple men into place (Matthew 27:60).

So, as Saturday dawned the next day, I don’t imagine it was a scene of celebration. The Bible doesn’t tell Saturday’s story, but we know that the powers-that-be who were used of Satan thought they had won. They had sealed the tomb and set a guard because they thought Jesus’s followers would try to steal the body (Matthew 27:62-66). But His followers were not a political or religious movement. His followers were His friends – those whose lives had been changed by Him, those who had believed and received life in His name (John 1:12). They were in mourning because the Teacher was dead. They were in mourning that they had doubted or denied Him (Luke 22:61-62). They were afraid because, if the powers-that-be had been able to kill Him, there’s no limit to what could be done to them (John 20:19). So, they huddled in the upper room with the table where they had their last supper with Him (Luke 22:14-20, John 20:19).

But Sunday was coming.

I cannot begin to explain what happened – that’s above my pay grade, so to speak, but think of all we know of life and death: it came untrue! The lifeless body of Jesus, truly dead and laid in the tomb, began to live again! The decay of His corpse reversed. Synapses in His brain fired. His bloodless heart pumped fresh. The torn and ripped skin on His back healed. The lungs that breathed the breath of life into Adam filled once more. The Lamb of God, looking as if He had been slain – because He had, stood of His own power (Revelation 5:6, John 10:18). The nail pierced hands took the grave clothes, folded them carefully, and laid them at the foot of the bier (John 20:6-7). Then, the maker of the stone willed it to move aside, needing no help because He was no mere mortal man. God who put on flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14) – who had died in our place (1 Peter 2:24) – rose again in power (Romans 6:9, Acts 2:24), putting off mortality so that those who put their faith in Him could put on His immortality (1 Corinthians 15:53-54).

It was Sunday, and Jesus had risen as He had said (Matthew 28:6).

The stone rolled away, light blinded and incapacitated the feeble guards keeping watch over His tomb (Matthew 28:2-4). The Author of Life and inventor of humanity could not be held by death because it wasn’t for Him (Acts 3:15, 2:24). The Lion of Judah had laid down His life as the Lamb of God (Revelation 5:5-6, John 1:29), and now walks forth in victory, every step announcing defeat – defeat of death and hell and putting Satan to open shame because His work was finished (Colossians 2:15, Hebrews 2:14).

Sunday came!

For the last 1,993 years, every Sunday has been a celebration and reminder that the tomb is empty and Jesus is alive. Every, single Sunday His followers have gathered in worship of Him, looking for His return (Acts 20:7, 1 Corinthians 16:2). In that sense, Sunday is coming again because we have the hope that He who came to save us by dying for our sin in accordance with the Scriptures (1 Corinthians 15:3-4) is He who could not be held by death. And if He can’t be stopped by death, He must surely be able to return as He has said (Acts 1:11). He who promised is faithful (Hebrews 10:23).

That’s why we gather. That’s why we celebrate.

So, tomorrow, we will lift our voices in worship because He is risen as He said. John will open the Scriptures and point us to Jesus – who He is and what He has done. We have the opportunity to celebrate that He who is alive offers life eternal to those who trust in Him (John 11:25-26). And YOU are invited to gather with us.

Won’t you join us?

Here are our Scriptures and songs:

  • Scripture | 1 Corinthians 15:3-4 —

3For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures….

9After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, 10and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” 11And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, 12saying, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.”

51 Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. 53 For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. 54 When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:
“Death is swallowed up in victory.”
55 “O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?”
56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

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Published by justkeithharris

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